[News] Gaza, Israelis are Gone but their Ghosts Remain

Anti-Imperialist News news at freedomarchives.org
Thu Sep 14 11:48:06 EDT 2006


http://www.aljazeerah.info/14%20o/One%20Year%20After%20'Disengagement'%20from%20Gaza,%20Israelis%20are%20Gone%20but%20their%20Ghosts%20Remain%20By%20Rami%20Almeghari.htm


One Year After 'Disengagement' from Gaza, Israelis are Gone but their 
Ghosts Remain

By Rami Almeghari

Al-Jazeerah, September 14, 2006

Bloodshed, destruction and fear are the remnants of the Israeli 
occupation army across the Gaza Strip since the Israeli settlers were 
evacuated on September 12, 2005 army. A year has passed since the 
Israeli 'disengagement' from Gaza, and since then there remains only 
the Israeli occupation's ghost, moving from one place to another 
throughout the Gaza Strip -- home to 1.3 million Palestinians, one of 
the most crowded places on earth.

In myths we learned that a ghost can never kill, but instead 
sabotages one's life by haunting its victims - causing panic, leaving 
no room for peaceful sleep. The role of ghosts in mythology has 
become the reality of the Gaza Strip.

Israel's ghost for the past year of 'no-occupation' is still casting 
fear, panic and destruction everywhere in Gaza, starting from the 
northernmost city of Beit Hanoun down to Beit Lahia, from eastern 
Gaza City to the central Gaza Strip refugee camp of Maghazi, and from 
Khez'a town to Rafah in the south.

The ghost, which lies on the borders of this most-densely populated 
part of the world, has been causing a great deal of devastation to 
Gaza's human beings, infrastructure and economy, since September 12, 2005.

The populated parts of Gaza are empty of a single Israeli soldier; 
they have all disappeared from the sight of ordinary Gazans, yet 
these Gazans are still being victimized by these soldiers' ghosts.

Right after the disengagement, Israeli jetfighters hovered in the 
Gaza sky, as an apparent reminder that they indication that they 
still existed. They spread panic every day and night by their 'sonic 
booms', that sound like bombs, on a daily and nightly basis.

In addition, the Israeli army created a one-kilometer deep buffer 
zone in the northern Gaza Strip, under the pretext of preventing 
Palestinian resistance groups from firing homemade rockets at nearby 
Israeli towns.

Israeli warplanes and drones committed a series of extra-judicial 
assassinations -- targeted killings, claiming the lives of dozens of 
Palestinians, including dozens of innocent women, men and children.

Also, throughout the past year, the Israeli occupation's ghost kept 
control over the main Gaza border crossing points, such as the Rafah 
crossing terminal (which is now observed by European observers), and 
the Karni and Sofa commercial crossings, thus having complete control 
over the movement of people and goods alike, and turning the Gazans 
into puppets controlled by this invisible hand.

This ghost also interfered in Palestinian politics, by rejecting the 
outcome of the Palestinian elections -- elections which were judged 
to be the most democratic in the Middle East, which brought to power 
the Hamas movement on January 25, 2006 -- just four months after 
disengagement.

So tax money due to the newly-elected Palestinian government has been 
withheld by Israel since January. The ghost's finger has gestured to 
others to take the same stand, and international aid has been cut to 
the entire population, in an attempt to undermine the Palestinian 
political system as well.

Israel's rejection of the electoral outcome has pushed the 
Palestinian economy to the brink of collapse, with crossings closed 
and 160,000 Palestinian government employees having received no 
salaries since March.

Shortly before mid 2006, after 8 months of disengagement, the ghost's 
intrusion into Palestinian life in Gaza has reached a climax, as the 
Israeli occupation army stepped up its attacks on all parts of Gaza 
areas including Gaza's shore, where a 7-member family, including 
women and children, were killed in cold blood by Israeli fire.

In June 2006, the Israeli undercover units abducted two Palestinian 
brothers inside the Palestinian borders in Rafah city, instigating 
some Palestinian resistance groups to retaliate by infiltrating into 
Israeli borders and killing two Israeli soldiers while abducting a third.

This unprecedented attack on an Israeli army base inside Israeli 
borders to the south of Rafah has led to the apex of Israeli army 
attacks on the Gaza Strip, known as 'Summer Rain' (the codename for 
the current Israeli military operation in various parts of the Gaza 
Strip). With 'Summer Rain', the ghost has materialized as a physical 
apparition -- and unlike the ghosts of mythology, this apparition can 
kill, with complete impunity.

 From June 27 until this very moment, Israeli soldiers are killing 
humans, destroying homes and uprooting trees throughout Gaza. The 
Israeli occupation army has killed more than 250 Palestinian men, 
women and children, wounded more than 1000 others, devastated Gaza's 
power plant, bridges, ministerial buildings, farms and houses, thus 
leaving the population of 1.4 million people without electricity. It 
is as if the people of Gaza are living in the stone age -- a time 
when people actually believed in such things as ghosts.


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